Silver Rose
by InnocentGuilt
Summary: [AerithxSephiroth...He never really thought about the chance that they might have brought her back as well.] This has slashisms in it. So be prepared. It's minute but definitely there.


A/N: This is what happens when my poor mind is left on its own for too long. Yeah that's right! I get going with the crack! Okay so maybe it's not so crack-ish, but there is simply not enough of this pairing and I love reading it. And since I can't find any to read I must satisfy myself with the next best thing.

Creating it.

This was written with so very little fluff…it's almost flat. But I like it, because it's short, sweet and too the point. I hope you like this as well.

Disclaimer:

(We're so mad about not owning it; we're not going to admit it!) **Glares at disclaimer**.

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When he came back, he was told it was to get everything right this time. And naturally, he assumed that he had to win this time. He not only had to kill Cloud, but Sora as well, and he had to win. So out he went back into the cruel world that was renamed, reformed, and reset.

_Kingdom Hearts, give me your strength this day!_

He found Cloud first, being his other half it wasn't too, terribly difficult. And Sora came not too long after, to prove his worthiness to the world via the Coliseum. And he tried to kill both, and failed. And when he failed he got confused, which made him angry. Horrifyingly angry.

So he left the Coliseum and went traveling. He didn't go many places, because everything, and everyone was rearranged and he decided it was time to try again, hoping to catch everyone unawares in the brief peace after the termination of Kingdom Hearts.

_Kingdom Hearts, give me your strength this day!_

Cloud was the easier to find, though it wasn't as if he was expecting it to change. So he went to Radiant Garden, still suspiciously disguised as Hollow Bastion, but he knew better. Though when he got there he was floored into silence.

He never really thought about the chance that they might bring her back as well. It shouldn't have shocked him, they had brought everyone else back, but it did. I shocked him, and threw his entire plan for a loop.

_She doesn't look a day older…Kingdom Hearts, give me your strength this day!_

He didn't expect anything to come from seeing her again. He expected that maybe he would feel a bit of anger that she was back…_again!_ But it didn't. Instead, it brought back a sharp stab of uncontrollable guilt. He had stopped everything he was doing, and ran into the canyons to think. To try to rein in the new emotions he was experiencing. He needed to be steady like stone. He needed to get everything right this time.

He finally forgot why he was hiding out in the chasm and finally went back after Cloud. But something happened; Cloud completely blew him off, walked away. And he saw her again, at the top of the canyon. And to make it even worse, she waved at him.

Kingdom Hearts, give…give me… 

A few weeks later, he was resting his forehead against the cool stone of the canyons. And there was a scrabble of rubble falling behind him, so he drew his sword immediately and swung it around, not wanting to have any unwanted _company_.

The flurry of pink and brown as she dodged the blade made his blood run cold, and it practically froze in his veins when she smiled at him, the blade that scraped the ground loudly, and back at him. And she asked,

"Are you trying to kill me again, Sephiroth?"

He put his sword away easily, dramatically, giving him time to think. He plastered the meanest sneer across his face; ignoring the sharp stabs of guilt he was experiencing.

"You're third on my list."

She tilted her head in acknowledgement. "How upsetting." She countered. "I was second last time."

And with that she walked away.

And so did he. He left Hollow Bastion for the first time, without so much as kidnapping one child.

_Kingdom Hearts, give me your strength this day._

He had given up on killing Sora. Somewhere along the road it had just lost all importance to him. Now it was just Cloud, kill Cloud, maim Cloud, beat Cloud. Get it _right_ this time. But strangely enough he didn't dream of his impending victory. No. In fact, he dreamt of her.

And he dreamed of her in gold.

He ultimately had to go back to Hollow Bastion, because that's where Cloud was, but the voice in his mind told him it wasn't just to settle the score with Strife.

_Kingdom Hearts, give me your strength this day._

Cloud wasn't at Hollow Bastion when he got there, however, and this not only confused him, but it made him angry as well. Since when had he not been able to tell where his other half was? He wandered through the silent city at night, censors having been silenced when he rammed his sword into the power system. And he followed his heart.

But he ended up in her room.

Sweet Jenova! She's beautiful. 

Her skin glowed in the moonlight, and her hair was loose and wavy, down from the braid she normally wore it in. She wore a silk slip, a light hue of blue, for her nightdress. He couldn't resist but to touch her cheek, to feel the soft skin, under his knuckles. When he removed his touch, she moaned quietly, and her eyelashes fluttered open.

"No, don't…don't stop."

He didn't think she knew whom she was talking to. So he began to back away, sliding towards the darkest corner he could find. And he felt jealousy, that she had asked someone to stay, someone who wasn't him.

She sat up in bed, facing the wall away from him but towards the moon.

"I said don't stop." She looked towards him, the moon casting strange shadows on her, and suddenly, she didn't look like a flower girl, she looked like a woman. Her eyes glowed in the diminished light of the room, and her skin was shadowed in the most sensual way, the nightgown flowing over her body, like a waterfall; it fell so smoothly. She wasn't just a woman; she was sumptuous, and succulent.

And he wanted to taste every part of her. He wanted to sin the greatest sin, and take her for his own pleasure.

But the guilt! "Aerith…I…"

"I know who you are. Just come here."

And without his mind's permission, he moved towards her.

_Kingdom Hearts, give my your strength this night._

His coat and armor were forced off of his shoulders within seconds of him reaching her bedside, she having stood as well when he came to her. He didn't say anything; he just stared down at her as her soft, powerful fingers worked the straps of leather like a pro. And for once in what felt like a millennia, he stood in front of someone else only in the standard issue gray ribbed sweater and black pants and boots issued out by SOLDEIR all those years ago.

"Why are you back?"

A small finger latched onto the loop zipper that held his sweater on.

"To get everything right."

Slowly the zipper was pulled down, exposing more of his ivory skin.

"Why are you here?"

The sweater was pushed off his shoulders and down his arms, his muscles twitching at the very touch of her palms.

"I don't know."

She looked at him, her warm hands resting on his shoulders. Her eyes were still as green as the valley that he had murdered her in.

…that _he had murdered her_ in.

He pulled away, knowing this was wrong. He pulled away, knowing that they shouldn't want this. But she stopped him, the fingers on his shoulders clenching and pulling, though she was dragged a few steps forward, because after all, she was a slight thing, and he was not.

"Get it right this time." She said.

He didn't know what _she_ had meant by that, but he wasn't about to deny her a third time.

_Kingdom Hearts, give me your strength this night._

Their kisses, were slow and maybe a little unsure, but it released something, something maybe they had repressed or denied in their past life. And whatever it released spread like wild fire, because soon they were on her bed, his pants working their way to coming unzipped and her dress pulled up over her hips.

His boots and pants dropped like bricks to floor, while her nightgown fluttered to the floor like a drunken butterfly. Now he messaged her skin; anywhere he could get on her smooth frame, and he kissed her neck, pulling gasps from her throat. His hand moved up her arms and over her collarbone, roaming down between her breasts, and down her ribs until…

"_Oh, no"_ He breathed, running his hand over it again. The scar. It was long, and thin, and just below her ribs at the top of her stomach. He closed his eyes, willing himself not to look down at the mar on her porcelain skin. But he looked anyway. The pale thin line about three inches long, that he tried to rub away with his thumb.

"Don't dwell on it." She whispered. "It won't make it feel better."

He glared down at her, upset that she had broken his silent musings. But she grabbed his hand and sucked on his two forefingers, then guiding his hand down her stomach. They didn't say a single word after that, not unless gasps counted.

He stretched her, taking time to prepare her properly. He teased her and toyed with her, taking his own pleasure as well. And he entered her, trying to block out the sounds of her muffled shouts as she bit his neck to ease the pain. Then he took her, sinning like heaven really didn't exist.

_Kingdom Hearts give me your strength; give me your light._

He almost left immediately after they had finished, but she said she was a bit of a conversationalist, so he stayed even though they didn't talk until he broke the silence.

"I'm still going to kill Strife. And the Keyblade master too, if I can ever get my hands on him." He said with a calm and cold voice, having had the idea that this could have been bargain sex.

She rested on her elbow, head resting in her hand, and her long chocolate hair falling across both of their chests. "I didn't expect you to. But do you mind telling me why you're on this vendetta against Cloud and Sora?"

He glared at her; poison shooting from his eyes, telling her just how much he liked the idea of her trying to cozy up to him.

"It's just a question. A girl's unconfinable curiosity." She gazed down at him. "And I've got a while before you kill me, you might as well play games with me." She said in a flat voice, ice practically clasping her words.

"To make everything right."

"You think murdering Cloud and Sora is getting it right?"

"It's the only thing I failed at last time."

"Then what am I here for, Sephiroth?"

There was silence when he didn't know the answer.

"What am I _here_ for?"

She was earnest and she touched his face, but he turned away from her. He stood to get dressed, collecting everything that had been thrown away from them in their lust. She just watched; sitting on the bed with the ocean blue sheets pulled over her chest. He opened the door, quietly as when he had entered.

"Hey." She said and he paused, "I think you're here to get the happiness you denied yourself. That's what I'm here for."

She lay down, still watching him as he shut the door.

And he left again, leaving Hollow Bastion for a second time, without even so much as a murder to his name.

Kingdom Hearts, give your strength this day! 

He traveled back to the Coliseum for a while, he had found Sora, battled, and failed, again, and he was left angry and hell-bent out of shape. So he drank a lot, getting angrier with each swallow of some vile whiskey. But in the mornings, too add to his hangover, he felt guilt again. Guilt that he had killed her, guilt that he had used her, guilt that he had left her.

He came to the conclusion that he must have finally gotten a soul, via Kingdom Hearts. How terrible.

Sora went and came several times in his stay, but he didn't fight him again. It didn't seem worth it. He wasn't a believer in third times a charm. His personal motto was if you don't get it right the second time just give up. So he did. And he traveled the galaxy again, trying to find his other half, so maybe he could kill him.

Kingdom Hearts, give me your strength this day! 

He was led back to Hollow Bastion, now with the newly constructed name, Radiant Garden. Strife still wasn't there, which confused him even further, so he retreated to the canyons again waiting for his other half to show his face.

And then the winds shifted. He knew now that Cloud was back. He went looking for the other, hoping to catch him off guard, to finally get everything right! However, he had to wait his turn, an army of heartless had attacked Radiant Garden, and in turn Strife and his group of lackeys. And he decided it couldn't be too terrible to have his opponent considerably diminished compared to him.

So he went back to the canyon mouth to wait.

Kingdom Hearts, give you your strength! 

He knocked the man Strife had been walking with silently away from him with the dull side of his sword, throwing him back against the stonewall, and knocking him unconscious in the unyielding rain.

"Leon!"

He didn't let Cloud utter another word before drawing him into a battle, using the other's weakened state to his advantage.

Attack.

Dodge.

Attack.

Attack.

Dodge.

Super.

Cloud stumbled and dropped his weapon, but he made to get back up, so he hit him with the hilt of his sword, sending him plummeting to the ground comatose. Finally, he could get everything right.

He raised his sword above his head, getting ready to plunge it into the feeble thing below him…

"No! Don't!"

Leonhart bore no weapons, he had no armor on, and he was soaked down to the bone.

"Sephiroth, don't! Please."

Leonhart tensed his shoulders, preparing for him to attack anyway. His hair was plastered to his face, and he probably couldn't see. He probably couldn't even tell that he didn't have a weapon in his hands. But he stood there anyway. Protecting the blond from him.

"How odd." He mouth, though it was drowned out by the bullets of rain.

Leonhart would easily stand in front of Cloud t protect him, no weapon, no armor, no anything, and be prepared to die. It intrigued him, and moved him. So he dropped his sword clear to the ground, listening to the metal scrape across the ground.

"_I think you're here to get the happiness you denied yourself."_

"He's lost too much blood, and the rain is sending him into hypothermia." He told Leonhart. "Fix him." He demanded. "Get it right." And he walked away, turning only once to see Leon slowly reviving Strife, moving rain soaked hair away from his face to better kiss his lips gently.

When Leonhart had picked up Cloud and walked out of sight. He went back to his little hide out, deciding to dry off, and sleep for a while. He thought he would have nightmares about the perfect opportunity he had missed to kill his other half, but he didn't. Instead, he dreamed of her.

And he dreamed of her in white.

"_I think you're here to get the happiness you denied yourself."_

_Kingdom Hearts…Kingdom…Hearts._

He didn't leave his quarters for the next few days, or weeks more like it, but when he did he followed his heart or his soul, whichever.

And it led him to her.

"Good morning, Aerith."

She jumped up from her flowers, turning to stare at him.

"You didn't…"

She walked up to him and hugged him tightly, shocking him so he tensed beneath her touch.

"You didn't leave." She said.

"It's not where my heart led me." He said, still cold, even to his own ears.

"I didn't know you had a heart." She countered.

"Neither did I."

They paused and she said. "You don't know how happy it made me to see them both come home."

"So you could get your happy ending?" He sneered.

"No. So no one would have to kill you." He was confused, and for once, it showed on his face. "Don't you get it, you're my other half. My happy ending starts with you, Sephiroth."

_Kingdom Hearts…hearts._

"_Get it right this time!"_

He left Radiant Garden for the third time, with nothing but a brunette to his name.

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A/N: Wasn't that oddly pleasant? I'm thinking of writing a companion to this in Aerith's point of view, but it's still up in the air and totally up to my reviewers. If they like it I get to writing. If they don't well the idea is left stuffed in my head.

Review! Review! I feel like William Shakespeare!

InnocentGuilt 


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